KITCHENER -- Waterloo Region reported 63 new COVID-19 cases Sunday, as well as a sharp spike in variants of concern.

Public Health says 140 more infections have been confirmed as the Delta variant. That’s in addition to 44 cases in Saturday’s update.

Two others have been identified as the Alpha variant.

The latest tally is as follows:

  • 3,076 are the Alpha variant, first identified in the United Kingdom and originally known as B.1.1.7
  • 11 are the Beta variant, originally detected in South Africa and previously referred as B.1.315
  • 61 are the Gamma variant, initially discovered in Brazil and labelled as P.1
  • 307 are the Delta variant, first found in India and previous called B.1.617
  • 314 cases have had a mutation detected, but have not yet had a variant strain confirmed

The total number of COVID-19 cases in Waterloo Region, since the start of the pandemic, has climbed to 17,424.

Of those, 16,689 have now been resolved.

The number of active cases has dropped by five to 456, and no new deaths have been reported.

Hospitalizations, including patients in the intensive care unit, remain unchanged.

Meanwhile Ontario is reporting a total of 287 new COVID-19 cases Sunday, as well as 12 additional deaths.